1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to an optical fiber connector.
2. Related art
A conventional optical fiber connector, as shown in FIG. 18, is disclosed (for example, see Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Sho. 63-128511).
In this optical fiber connector 70, end portions of optical fibers 71 are passed respectively through insertion holes 72a in a holder 72 and also through coil springs 73, and the optical fibers 71 are bonded to inner surfaces of ferrules 74, respectively, thereby forming optical fiber plugs 75, and the optical fiber plugs 75 are inserted into a connector housing 76', and then the holder 72 is fitted on the connector housing 76'.
Distal end surfaces 75a of the optical fiber plugs 75 are polished, and then the optical fiber connector 70 is fitted into a light receiving-emitting device 76, so that the distal end surfaces 75a of the optical fiber plugs 75 are spring-biased (urged) into receiving tubes 77, respectively. As a result, the distal end surfaces 75a of the optical fiber plugs 75 are always kept spaced a predetermined distance respectively from light receiving-emitting elements (not shown) received respectively in the light receiving-emitting device 76.
However, for example, when a ring-like optical LAN (Local Area Network) 78 is to be built by optical fiber connectors 70A to 70D as shown in FIG. 19, the holder 72, the coil spring 73 and the ferrule 74 are mounted on an end portion of each of optical fibers 71a to 71d, thereby forming optical fiber plugs 75A to 75D, and then the distal end surfaces of the optical fiber plugs 75A to 75D must be polished. Therefore, there has been encountered a drawback that the polishing operation is troublesome, and can not be automated.
Therefore, in order to facilitate the polishing operation, an optical connector as shown in FIG. 20 has been proposed (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 59-139012, 59-140411 and 1-316711).
In this optical connector 80, optical fibers 82, passed respectively through coil springs 81, are inserted respectively into ferrules 83, thereby forming two optical fiber plugs 84, and the ferrules 83 of the optical fiber plugs 84 are inserted respectively into ferrule receiving chambers 86 in a connector housing 85, and a holder 87 is mounted on the connector housing 85. In this condition, one end 81a of each coil spring 81 acts on a flange 83a of the associated ferrule 83 to urge the same toward the connector housing 85.
However, the two optical fibers 82 are passed through the coil springs 81, respectively, and therefore there has been encountered a drawback that the number of the component parts is increased. And besides, there has been a possibility that during the operation, the coil spring 81 is inadvertently pushed deep into the ferrule receiving chamber 86 to be disposed near to a core 82a. And, if the coil spring is thus pushed deep into the ferrule receiving chamber, there has been encountered a drawback that an error in the confirmation of the presence of the coil spring 81 in the ferrule receiving chamber 86 is liable to occur.
And besides, before the holder 87 is mounted on the connector housing 85, the coil springs 81 are displaced out of position because of their own weight, and therefore the efficiency of mounting of the holder 87 was poor. The assembling operation is carried out while keeping the two optical fibers 82 parallel to each other, and therefore the coil springs 81 often became entangled with each other.